Greetings from Austin. It’s warmer here.
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“What should I expect from my accounting department?” asked Roland.

“I don’t know, what do you expect?”

“We have a job description for each position, but it’s just a list of things that have to get done,” Roland continued.

“Is it sufficient to clearly communicate what you expect?” I asked.

“I thought so, when we wrote them up, but now I don’t know. You have been talking about Time Span. How does that figure in to all this? How can it be helpful?”

“Okay, let’s look at your Accounts Payable position. When you look at the work that has to get done, does your job description accurately describe the tasks?”

Roland pondered for a minute, “Yeah, but even if my A/P person does all the things on the list, even gets them done before they are due, they could still be doing a lousy job.”

“Oh, really, how so?”

“The job description says that all the invoices have to be recorded into the computer system and coded to the various expense accounts. And check runs are supposed to be finished by 5:00p every Thursday. But the person could still be doing a lousy job.”

“Tell me more,” I continued.

“They could do all the prescribed duties okay, it’s the discretionary things, like looking to see if we could take a discount if we paid early, or making sure we don’t pay the same invoice twice in the same month. Stuff like that.”

“So, it’s the discretionary part that’s not made clear in the job description.”

Roland thought some more, “You’re right, the job is really bigger than what is reflected in the job description. How do you put that stuff in the job description?”